KEY LEGAL CONSIDERATIONS RELATING TO “SANCTUARY CAMPUS” POLICIES AND PRACTICES ALEKSANDAR DUKIC, STEPHANIE GOLD, AND GREGORY LISA* Abstract Following President Trump’s election and his administration’s subsequent announcement it intends to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, college campus communities are focused on what steps they can legally take to protect and support their undocumented students. A number of campuses have self-identifed as “sanctuary campuses.” But the policies and practices implemented at such campuses vary and the legal questions about what campuses can do to protect their students do not turn on the label. This article explores the various meanings attached to “sanctuary campus” and the legal import of that label. We then analyze the legal issues that restrict the actions campuses can take to support and protect undocumented students. These include: (1) campus administrators’ legal obligations to provide information and documents to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and ofcers; (2) the extent to which campuses can block ICE or other federal law enforcement from campus or specifc parts of campus; and (3) the risk that actions taken by campuses in support of undocumented immigrants could violate the federal law prohibiting “harboring” unauthorized aliens or assisting others that do so. I. Introduction An estimated 200,000 to 225,000 United States college students are undocumented immigrants.1 Concerns about President Donald J. Trump’s campaign promises to make deportation of millions of illegal immigrants a top priority sparked widespread campus protests shortly after his election.2 Protestors demanded a variety of actions. Many called for their campus to become a “sanctuary” that would protect undocumented students from deportation as much as legally possible. Many undocumented students received temporary protection from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) Executive Order issued * Aleksandar Dukic, Stephanie Gold, and Gregory Lisa are Partners at the law frm Hogan Lovells US LLP. The authors thank their colleague Rebecca Umhofer for her invaluable assistance with the article. The contents of the article are for informational purposes only. Neither this publication nor the lawyers who authored it are rendering legal or other professional advice or opinions on specifc facts or matters, not does the distribution of this publication to any person constitute the establishment of an attorney-client relationship. 1 Kaitlin Mulhere, Undocumented and Stressed, Inside Higher Ed. (Jan. 26, 2015), https:// www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/01/26/study-fnds-undocumented-colleges-students-face- unique-challenges. 2 See e.g., Catherine E. Shoichet & Azadeh Ansari, ‘Sanctuary Campus’ Protests Target Trump Immigration Policies, CNN (Nov. 16, 2016), http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/16/politics/sanctuary- campus-protests/index.html. 23 by President Obama in 2012.3 DACA enabled certain undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children to apply for deferred immigration enforcement—the use of prosecutorial discretion to defer actions to remove them— for a period of two years, subject to renewal. Although DACA never conferred lawful immigration status on those who applied, it allowed them to remain in the U.S., to obtain temporary work permits, and protected them from deportation while covered by the policy.4 On September 5, 2017, the Trump Administration announced that it would rescind the DACA program and no new requests would be accepted. The Trump Administration also initially announced that no DACA renewals would be processed after March 5, 2018, absent Congressional action. However, two courts have since issued injunctions requiring that DACA renewals continue as litigation challenging the Trump administration’s rescission of DACA proceeds through the courts.5 As a result, it is unclear how long students who have been protected from deportation and granted temporary work authorization by DACA will continue to enjoy those benefts. Moreover, thousands of undocumented students who were never protected by DACA6 may believe they are more at risk of deportation under Trump administration policies. Since President Trump’s election, and with renewed vigor following the Trump administration’s announcement that it intended to end the DACA program, campus communities are focused on what steps they can legally take to protect and support their undocumented students. Practices and policies in place at some self-identifed “sanctuary campuses” may be tested. But what does it mean to be a sanctuary campus? There is no single answer to this question. The more than 100 “campus sanctuary” petitions submitted to schools across the country in the fall of 2016 called for a variety of actions.7 And, campuses responded in diferent ways. At least eleven institutions have declared themselves sanctuary campuses.8 But 3 Mulhere, supra note 1. 4 In contrast, non-citizens that meet the requirements for Legal Permanent Residency can reside and work indefnitely in the United States and recipients of temporary visas enjoy lawful status in the United States for the period of their visa. 5 The Department of Homeland Security’s Citizens and Immigration Services division has indicated that it is not accepting DACA applications from individuals who have never before been granted deferred action under DACA but that in accordance with federal court orders issued on January 9, 2018 and February 13, 2018, it is continuing to accept requests to renew a grant of deferred action under DACA on the same terms in place before DACA was rescinded on September 5, 2017. See Dep’t of Homeland Sec., Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals: Response to January 2018 Preliminary Injunction, https://www.uscis.gov/humanitarian/deferred-action-childhood-arrivals- response-january-2018-preliminary-injunction. 6 Mulhere, supra note 1. One study found that close to 44% of undocumented students had not received DACA protections. 7 Carla Javier & Jorge Rivas, Students from 100 universities are fghting for ‘sanctuary campuses’ to defy Trump’s deportation plans, Splinter News (Nov. 21 2016), https://splinternews.com/students- from-100-universities-are-fghting-for-sanctua-1793863883. 8 These include Portland State University, Reed College, Wesleyan University, Pitzer College, SantaFe Community College, University of Pennsylvania, Oregon State University, Connecticut College, Drake University, Swarthmore College, and Scripps College. See Chris Lydgate, Kroger Declares Reed a Sanctuary College, Reed Magazine (Nov. 18, 2016), http://www.reed.edu/reed_magazine/ sallyportal/posts/2016/sanctuary-college.html; Michael S. Roth, Wesleyan University a Sanctuary 24 even among that group, the policy commitments made by campus ofcials are not uniform. Moreover, the policies and practices at many campuses that have declined to declare themselves a sanctuary do not difer signifcantly from those that have identifed themselves as a sanctuary campus. The legal ramifcations of sanctuary campus status are of course largely dictated not by the label but by campus policies and practices. Below, we explore the various meanings attached to “sanctuary campus” and the legal import of that label. We then analyze the legal issues that restrict the actions campuses can take to support and protect undocumented students. These include: (1) campus administrators’ legal obligations to provide information and documents to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and ofcers; (2) the extent to which campuses can block ICE or other federal law enforcement from campus or specifc parts of campus; and (3) the risk that actions taken by campuses in support of undocumented immigrants could violate the federal law prohibiting “harboring” unauthorized aliens or assisting others that do so. II. What is a Sanctuary Campus? Each letter issued by a university ofcial declaring a campus a sanctuary has its own characteristics.9 A November 30, 2016 letter signed by the University of Pennsylvania’s President, Provost and Executive Vice President declared that “Penn is and has always been a ‘sanctuary’—a safe place for our students to live and to learn.”10 It also made several commitments that mirrored those made by other schools—some that self-identify as a sanctuary and some that do not. These Campus, Roth on Wesleyan (Nov. 20, 2016), http://roth.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2016/11/20/wesleyan- university-a-sanctuary-campus/; Wim Wiewel, President, Portland State Univ., Portland State is a Sanctuary University, https://www.pdx.edu/insidepsu/portland-state-is-a-sanctuary-university (last visited Nov. 19, 2017); Melvin L. Oliver, President, Pitzer Coll., President Oliver and the Board of Trustees Declare Pitzer a Sanctuary College (Nov. 30, 2016), https://www.pitzer.edu/president/president-oliver-and- board-of-trustees-declare-pitzer-a-sanctuary-college/; Robert Nott, SFCC Declared a ‘Sanctuary Campus’ for Immigrants, New Mexican, (Nov. 30, 2016) http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/education/ sfcc-declared-a-sanctuary-campus-for-immigrants/article_cb2a01c6-52d4-55d7-b888-f6d4a16b0ecc. html; Amy Gutmann, President, Vince Price, Provost, & Craig R. Carnaroli, Exec. Vice President, Univ. of Pa., A Message to the Penn Community Concerning Our DACA and Undocumented Community Members, Penn News (Nov. 30, 2016), https://news.upenn.edu/message-penn-community-concerning-our-daca- and-undocumented-community-members; Edward J. Ray, President, Or. State Univ.,